Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Akira Kurosawa's first color film is a spellbinding tribute to humankind's ability to overcome adversity by holding on to dreams. Brilliant colors flood the screen as Kurosawa illuminates the grim world of Tokyo slum dwellers who, to escape the pain of poverty, have taken refuge in illusion.

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Made in 1970, this film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1972. This is Kurosawa's first color film, and there seems to be an almost psychedelic overlay to his production palette. The story revolves around a collection of characters held together only by the frayed thread of poverty. Rokkuchan (Yoshitaka Zushi), a teenager with the mind of a boy, is obsessed with trolley cars. He draws them from every angle in vivid colors. His despondent mother (Kin Sugai) hangs them lovingly on the walls and windows of their simple home.

Every morning Rokkuchan goes out to his imaginary trolley car and makes his way through the surrounding slums. His neighbors include a humble man with a terrible limp and an unforgiving wife, two couples who color-coordinate their husband-swapping, and a sad derelict man with an adoring but doomed little boy. During the day, father and son pass the time building a dream house in their minds. At night they sleep in an abandoned car.

While visually compelling, the film lacks connection between the characters, which leaves the viewer feeling disjointed and somehow lessens the emotional impact of these tragic stories. But as a slice-of-life look at how people maintain simple dignities in the face of great hardship, it is definitely a film worth seeing. --Luanne Brown

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I love the movie. Only thing is I loved it since early 1960s.The DVD I received and a quick check online indicates that they say this movie was released in 1970. Bullshi!I was 10-12 years old when I first saw this movie. That would be late 1950's or early 1960's. I saw the movie before I moved to the USA in 1963.I don't know what's with the official release date. But, look at Kurosawa's work. Look at the movie -- it's color, the scenery (not that much devastation left in 1970 -- but I lived it in 1955). The cinematography, sets, ... everything point to this movie being produced much earlier than the release date on the DVD and Wikipedia of 1970. Perhaps in 1970 for the US release, but, lets at least note the production date in Japan. The mid-1950s Japan is not same as 1970. Japan in 1950s was still on rice rations. Some, or much of the war damage has not been cleared, many adults were still psychologically damaged from the War ... hundreds/thousands of former Japanese soldiers wrere begging on the streets.The movie portrays immediate post-WWII Japan. Let's not mislead today's viewers otherwise!

But, dang, this is a classic. I have loved this movie, as I have said since, oh, 1960. ... 55+ years ago.

Started out slow. Wasn't sure. Then as you get to see the other characters, their lives, living on a garbage dump...what is the lesson? "All you have to do is survive?" "Be kind to your fellow man?" I watched this with others and we talked about it for quite sometime after the movie. Get it if you are a fan of Japanese Movies and Kurosawa. Let it work on you, give it a chance. A great snapshot of postwar Japan.

Dodes ka den is the sound that an imaginary trolly car makes as it is driven up hill in the Japanese slum in Akira Kurasawa'a film of the same name. This film, a failure at the time of release, is a diamond in the rough for its ever humanistic director. The film was the master's first color film and he paints with an extemely colorful palette.

The interconnected stories of the impoverished denizens of an urban slum in Tokyo may be pessimistic but they are fascinating all the same. Kurasawa tried a method of filmaking that would become popular some 25 years later with such films as Crash, Babel and Short Cuts. Misunderstood when it was released (the film took five years to get to the Unite States)and still seldom seen the film needs to be sought out by those who are interested in Kurasawa's work.

Available only on VHS this film would truly sparkle if given new life as a DVD release. The picture is letterboxed with good subtitles. Well worth seeing if you have the oppurtunity. Seek it out.

It mystifies me why this film receives so little attention among Kurosawa's oeuvre...it may not be his best gendaigeki, but it's far from his worst. I was struck by the numerous parallels to Itami's Tanpopo, to the point of being almost certain Itami saw this film as part of the inspiration for his vignette approach; if in Tanpopo the unifying element is food, here it's a location (the dump) and the condition (grinding poverty, despair) that location implies. It's just like Tanpopo, except of course for the fact that poverty and misery, on balance, aren't very funny...but then, Kurosawa et al never said it was a comedy, did they?

Kurosawa's first color film originally came in at 244 minutes and the studio executives were aghast. They quickly cut it to about 140 minutes and reportedly destroyed the original negative in so doing. This along with the lack of public and critical acceptance at the time drove the great genius to a suicide attempt. In it's original form it could well have been Kurosawa's great masterpiece. As it is, it's a little quixotic and hard to follow, but a stunning piece of movie making. The children's train drawings shown during the prayer scenes were collected by Kurosawa from children all over Japan for this film. It is pointless to recap the story, but I just say to you see it and you'll never forget it. Perhaps Criterion could find the orignal version when it comes out on DVD, let's hope so!

Kurosawa's first color film originally came in at 244 minutes and the studio executives were aghast. They quickly cut it to about 140 minutes and reportedly destroyed the original negative in so doing. This along with the lack of public and critical acceptance at the time drove the great genius to a suicide attempt. In it's original form it could well have been Kurosawa's great masterpiece. As it is, it's a little quixotic and hard to follow, but a stunning piece of movie making. The children's train drawings shown during the prayer scenes were collected by Kurosawa from children all over Japan for this film. It is pointless to recap the story, but I just say to you see it and you'll never forget it. Perhaps Criterion could find the orignal version when it comes out on DVD, let's hope so!

A fan of independent and foreign movies, I rented this years ago. Never forgot it. A different sort of Kurosawa but quirky good. So happy that Amazon has such a great foreign independent DVD selection that is friendly and easy to use. Hope that some of the foreign DVDs I saw listed get reformatted to play on our devices.